colonizer

American  

[kol-uh-nahy-zer] / ˈkɒl əˌnaɪ zər /

noun

colonizers plural

1. 1. a nation or government that claims a territory other than its own, forcibly taking control over the population and resources located in that territory and usually sending some of its own people to settle there.

      In the past, whole continents have been appropriated by colonizers such as Britain, Spain, France, and Portugal.

   2. any of the settlers who come from such a nation to live in or help control the territory their government has claimed.

      The Red River was the scene of a major historic battle between European colonizers and Canada’s Indigenous people.

   3. Often Disparaging and Offensive. a descendant of any of these settlers, or any person belonging to their culture and enjoying the advantages of the power structure set up by the colonizing nation.

2. a person who is among the first to settle in an area.

   The initial colonizers of the Arctic were thought to have descended from inhabitants of the forested south.

3. Biology. a species of plant or animal that moves or is transported to a new habitat and seeks to establish itself there.

   Ecologists are interested in why some species are successful colonizers while others are not.

4. Microbiology, Medicine/Medical. a microbe that multiplies in or on another organism, especially one that does so without causing disease or infection, such as certain bacteria in the gut or on the skin of humans.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• colonizers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colonizer

First recorded in 1720–30; colonize ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colonizer colonizers

Powerful new international circuits of credit were built that deepened America’s integration into a British-led global economy and helped pave the way for the young U.S. to leapfrog its former colonizer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025

The message that Hansen came to deliver was drowned out by the demonstrators, who shouted at Hansen while unveiling a banner that read, “Gringo colonizer fuera del Mirador.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2023

President Idriss Déby, who was fatally wounded on the battlefield in 2021, tamped down multiple rebellions during his 30-year reign, sometimes with the support of Chad’s former colonizer, France.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2023

He envisioned how emblematic a victory of the former colony over its former colonizer would be.

From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2022

There will always be, in emerging nations, an enduring attraction to the ways of the colonizer — I myself was not immune to it.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

The colonizers, four Chagossians aged 31 to 72, clambered aboard a dinghy and came ashore, waving British and American flags.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026

But as human activities damage habitats and reduce biodiversity across regions, the number of possible colonizers falls.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026

We started our hike by heading to the Oak of the Golden Dream, where gold was first discovered by colonizers in 1842.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026

In TV and movies, there are the racist horrors of Lovecraft Country and the moral monstrosity of the body-snatching colonizers in Get Out.

From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2024

This meant, among other things, that the colonizers expected support from the Crown, including money for defense against Indigenous peoples who fought back against the invasion of their homelands.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Related Words

• ruler